IOUs
by VegetaCold
Summary: When Vlad and Danny owe each other, what will they ask each other to do? NO yaoi but does include Danny X Sam, Vlad X Maddie.
1. Danny and Sam

A/N: Well, since I'm no good writing a Bulma/Vegeta (not that any of you will know who they are...) love story, here's a Sam and Danny! But wait! Vlad couldn't keep from rearing his ugly head again! (Well, it's not really all that ugly...) Anyway, this is a one-shot, but there will be another part to this story, so add it to your alert if you like it and I'll get started writing the second half. Also, please tell me what you think, I would appreciate it.

~VC

* * *

He decided to take her to the carnival one late summer's day. She was wearing her usual attire-her black tank top and plaid skirt with purple stockings and heavy black boots, which she all wore on even the hottest of days. The sun never chased away her gothic attire, Danny noted as he walked along the aisle of red-and-white-striped game booths with her. In fact, she looked much more inhuman, much like a vampire, wearing her black sunhat with the black veil attached. However, that did not mean he wasn't turned on-in fact, he found she seemed much more attractive when she was bitching about the heat of the sun and the light it produced in general, when she threatened to dawn the sleeves of the black trench coat she owned but never wore because she claimed it was too masculine even for herself, when she tugged down the brim of her black sunhat over her eyes and stamped her boots frustratedly on the hot blacktop. And now, he was very turned on, because that had seemed to be all she'd done since they'd arrived at the carnival-bitch and moan.

"Danny," she growled as he dragged her by the hand through the crowded streets, where dust was kicked up ceaselessly and settled in their hair and coated their tongues, "It's too goddam _hot _to be out today. Couldn't we have done something inside?"

"God, Sam, you could really use a smoke," Danny teased her, smiling, though that didn't mean he wasn't serious.

She scowled at him and yanked her wrist out of his grip. "Yeah, I could, and I left my fucking cigarette case at my house. That's why we need to _leave_."

"Jeez, it's not like you're the only one who has cigarettes," Danny said, rolling his eyes.

Sam's eyes widened briefly. "You have some?"

Danny shook his head but grinned at her. "No, but I can get you some right now if you ride the ferris wheel with me."

This time, it was Sam who rolled her eyes as she gave Danny an affectionate but annoyed punch on the arm. "Oh, you are so full of shit. Like a pussy like you could manage to get cigarettes."

"Watch me," Danny said, he grin growing wider.

As a shady-looking man wearing an olive green trench coat hastily strode by them, Danny turned his right hand intangible and stuck it into one of the deep pockets of the coat. Danny pulled his hand out and grinned as he watched the man continue on unknowingly to the stone bridge near the carnival where the man slip quietly into the tunnel beneath it. Though the man thought he was completely hidden, Danny was still able to see him clearly as he glanced briefly in all directions and stuck his hands in his pockets, only to realize that the cigarettes he'd kept there, along with his stash of illegal drugs, had disappeared.

Danny handed everything discreetly to Sam, who quickly took it and shoved it into her pockets sheepishly. Danny smirked at her triumphantly and raised a condescending eyebrow. "So, two tickets for the ferris wheel?"

Sam chuckled and nodded, smiling. "Yeah, sure, and I'll buy them."

"The girl isn't supposed to buy the tickets," Danny laughed, still grinning.

"Fuck that. For what you just got me-" she patted her pocket "-it's the least I can do. Hell, if you knew what that guy had, I'd owe you a lot of money. So consider us even." With that, she strode off to the ticket office at the start of the line for the ferris wheel. Danny smiled and ran to catch up with her.

When they bought their tickets, they climbed into one of the lemon yellow seats of the ferris wheel and the ride operator started the ride. The two of them sat back in the seat and silently observed the ongoings of the carnival below as the ferris wheel slowly rotated.

At some point, Sam turned to Danny and said, "I'm surprised we were able to do this today."

"What do you mean?"

"The way the ghosts have been attacking lately, it seems like you never have time to do anything but fight them. But I haven't seen one ghost today."

"Oh," Danny said, grinning at her, almost sheepishly as she had when he'd handed her the drugs, "there's a reason for that."

Sam raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"Well, I got a guy to take care of them for me."

Sam frowned, perplexed. "A guy?"

"Yeah..." Danny scanned the carnival below briefly, then suddenly smirked and pointed at the sight below. "Look, you can see him. He's kickin' the shit outta Young Blood at the pirate ride." He rolled his eyes. "What a surprise, right?"

Sam found the pirate ride and her eyes grew very wide as she watched Danny's man suck Young Blood into the Fenton Thermos and slam the lid on easily. A cocky grin spread across his face and he cackled triumphantly, a cackle Sam was all too familiar with.

"Danny," Sam gasped, gripping Danny's arm tightly in fear, "that's-"

"Hey, Vlad!" Danny hollered down at the carnival, waving his free arm. "Up here!"

Vlad Plasmius turned immediately at the sound of Danny's voice. His grin became very wide, his face lighting up when his eyes found Danny sitting at the top of the ferris wheel with Sam. He waved the hand that did not clutch the thermos.

"Hello, Daniel!" he hollered back up at him.

The shrieks of small children then rang out, and Danny, Sam, and Vlad all turned their attention to the fun house where Spectra and her assistant Bertrand were terrorizing a young girl who was clutching her teddy bear to her chest and shaking. Vlad sighed, looked back up at Danny momentarily, and wordlessly pointed at the scene, nodding his head in its direction. Danny grinned and gave him two thumbs up. Vlad sighed in annoyance but still smiled as he took off in the direction of the fun house, thermos in hand.

Sam watched Vlad silently for a moment, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide, before she turned back to Danny and gazed at him in astonishment. Danny chuckled and nervously ran a hand through his hair.

"Danny," Sam said slowly, as if she were doing her best to suppress a shriek, "what the hell did you do?"

"Vlad...owed me a favor. I thought I would use it today, so we could, you know...spend some time with each other," he said, and blushed, smiling at Sam with that same sheepishness from before.

"You mean...you asked your arch enemy to protect the town just so you could take me to the carnival?" Sam asked in disbelief.

Danny nodded.

"I think that's the stupidest thing you could have ever done...but it was really sweet," Sam said, smiling softly at Danny.

Danny smiled at her and put an arm around her shoulders. She smiled and scooted closer to him. They stayed like this until the ride was over, and even then, they still clung to each other.

They found a secluded spot to smoke later that night, and after they'd both lit their cigarettes and taken a few puffs, Sam suddenly asked, "Hey, Danny, what the hell did you do for Vlad that he needed to repay you?"

Danny started to softly chuckle, shaking his head.

"Well..."


	2. Vlad and Maddie

Vlad Masters stood in front of a mirror, staring at his reflection, his fingers nervously tugging at his tie. He looked at himself with an expression of uncertainty and something like disappointment, if he were capable of feeling this way about himself. He regarded his navy blue suit with a light blue vest and tie skeptically, catching the attention of the saleswoman who was helping them. She bounded over quickly from a rack where she had been paging through suit after suit, trying to select the perfect one for Vlad, a pile of clothing in her hands. She dropped everything and approached him.

"How do you like it, Mayor Masters?" she asked, although she already knew exactly what he thought of it.

"It's…well, it's all right. Certainly never something I envisioned myself wearing. But—" Vlad jerked his thumb in the direction of the leather sofa where the dark-haired, teenaged boy sat, legs crossed, arms folded, observing silently. "—it's Danny's favorite."

"It is," Danny Fenton said, his expression stern and calculating, looking at Vlad as someone whose expertise is formal wear regards their newest creation, "and you'd be stupid if you didn't pick this one."

"I know you like it, Daniel, but it isn't my style."

"Vlad, don't flatter yourself. I wouldn't say you really have a _style _so much as the same black suit and bowtie."

"On the contrary Daniel, I have _multiple _black suits and bowties," Vlad responded, grinning, causing Danny to roll his eyes.

"Whatever," Danny said, unamused. "You're not going to wear that old thing to your date. Trust me, it's an automatic turn-off."

"And how do you know?"

"Vlad, it may have made girls hot back in the seventies, but _no one _wears those ugly ties anymore. Especially not on dates."

"Well, you _are _the expert on these things," Vlad replied sarcastically, smiling.

The saleswoman, who had been listening in on their conversation, smiled that delightfully robotic smile and chirped up suddenly, "Oh, a date? How exciting!"

Danny nodded. "It is, considering this fool's been single all his life."

"Hey now, that's no way to address your mayor, Daniel," Vlad said, attempting to sound stern but ultimately unable to; his voice was lighthearted and almost gleeful sounding.

Danny flashed him a toothy grin in return. "No, I guess not."

The saleswoman paid no mind to their unnecessary chatter. She said in that unnatural way of speaking, the liveliness and energy so obviously forced, as if she could not care less but felt it was her duty to ask, "Who's the lucky girl?"

At this, a grin much like Danny's had been spread across Vlad's face, one goofy and filled with teeth. Danny observed this and found himself shocked, despite the fact that he knew how excited Vlad was for this date. It was a date he had waited for all his life, and, Danny thought, if he'd been in the same position he would have grinned in such a manner, too. But this was Vlad they were talking about, not any normal, lonely, cat-loving man in his forties who'd been single his whole life. Even if he should have expected this, he didn't, because he didn't ever think Vlad was capable of wearing a grin that was not fueled by evil or some other malicious emotion.

Vlad grinned in this fashion as he stared at himself in the mirror, tugging at his tie—a real tie, not a bowtie, which Danny thought suited him a thousand times better. He almost looked, well…he almost looked young. It was as if he was looking at a photograph of Vlad from twenty years ago; he looked almost like a bachelor who'd decided to go for the quote on quote trendy look and had dyed his hair white. The combination of blues in his attire brought out an intense ice-blue in his eyes, a color that had before seemed muted and dull, oppressed, Danny guessed, by the blackness of his suit. He did really look stunning, and Danny _knew _she was going to fall for him the moment she saw him.

"Someone I've been waiting for my whole life," Vlad said, reminding Danny vaguely of a character in the love story Mr. Lancer had forced them to read, Romeo and Juilet. The two of them did not really know each other, but they were somehow certain they were meant to be together. Vlad certainly was _Romeo _tonight, but Danny doubted if his date would be so eager to take up the roll of Juliet. Vlad might be sure that the two of them were destined to be together, but Danny couldn't say the same about the woman he'd fallen in love with, the woman who was not in love with him and who had only agreed to go on this date tonight after much haranguing on both their parts.

"That must have been the best day for you, wasn't it, Vlad?" Danny said, still grinning up at him. "The day they got divorced?"

Vlad's grin faded and he moved his gaze from his own reflection, to Danny's reflection, to Danny. "You know I felt awfully for you, little badger," he said gently, almost timidly.

"But you shouldn't have. I've told you already, I was glad when they did too. I was tired of seeing my dad drink and hit her."

"I know, Danny, but I promise you, if your mother gives me the chance, I'm going to help. I know how much you need a father figure in your life," Vlad said sincerely, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder.

"That's why this date has to go well."

Vlad nodded. "Yes, you're right."

"But I have a good feeling it will. My mom's a sucker for blue suits, but you probably picked up on that."

Vlad's grin returned. "Yes, I did."

"And that's why you're wearing this one."

"Alright, alright, if you say so," Vlad said, chuckling.

Danny smiled triumphantly. "Good, because I want this date to work, probably even more than you do."

Vlad's expression softened considerably. "You don't know how much that means to me, little badger."

"Well, it means a lot that you want to step in."

"I certainly do, in more ways than one. I plan to be a father as well as a husband, if your mother lets me."

"She will."

Vlad smiled again, and it was fueled by excitement and warmth this time. "Well, I can't thank you enough for setting this date up."

"It's no problem, Vlad."

"Well, still. I owe you one."


End file.
